Greater New Orleans

No injuries were reported as a result of a late January flaring incident at ExxonMobil Corp.'s Baton Rouge refinery. Pictured is the ExxonMobil refinery in Baton Rouge in May 2004. The Louisiana State Capitol is seen at left.
(Susan Poag, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Officials at ExxonMobil Corp.'s Baton Rouge refinery said no injuries were reported as a
result of a late January chemical flaring incident.

A compressor malfunction on equipment sparked the chemical flare for less than an hour on Jan. 27, according to Stephanie Cargile, ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Area public and government
affairs manager. "In this case, we safely combusted process gases," she said.

Members of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a New Orleans-based environmental advocacy group, alleged on Thursday that the company did not report the incident to appropriate environmental officials. In a Feb. 6 email to supporters, the group wrote that, upon learning of the incident, the organization sent its emergency response team to Standard Heights, a neighborhood just south of Exxon's Baton Rouge plant. After knocking on 90 doors, the group said it "had 36 conversations which lead to eight reports of pollution."

The charge was disputed by Cargile, who said, "We notified the appropriate agencies like DEQ as per our normal practice."

A DEQ spokesman confirmed to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune that Exxon did report the incident. Although DEQ's monitoring equipment detected no pollution in the atmosphere, "Exxon did have expectations that they expected to exceed the reportable quantities of Sulfur Dioxide and Propylene," DEQ's Gregory Langley said.

Exxon released 6,497 pounds of Sulfur Dioxide into a flare, according to Langley, well above the 500-pound amount required for a DEQ notification. The incident also prompted a release of 137 pounds of Propylene, an amount above 100-pound reporting minimum.

After DEQ's response team reviews the incident report, the enforcement division will determine whether or not ExxonMobil will have to pay a fine.

Cargile said there were no damages to property as a result of the flaring.

A flare is a flame fueled by gas that rings the top of a tall stack most commonly seen at refineries and plants around Louisiana. "When a pressure
buildup/equipment failure forces a release of toxic chemicals, these
substances are vented to flares," said Langley, adding regulations require flares to burn 98
percent of the released chemicals.